On Tuesday, the NFLPA filed a non-injury grievance on behalf of all players, and said in a statement, “This new policy, imposed by the NFL’s governing body without consultation with the NFLPA, is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement and infringes on player rights.” (Read more)

Click On Photo To Watch Video(CNN)LeBron James thinks the President is using athletics, and athletes, to split up the country. And he’s rejecting the premise like an opponent’s ill-advised layup.

“What I’ve noticed over the past few months,” James shared with CNN’s Don Lemon during a sit-down interview on Monday. “(Is) he’s kinda used sports to kinda divide us, and that’s something that I can’t relate to.”

New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch will not punish his players for any anthem displays of protest and hopes that President Donald Trump will focus on other issues, he told The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday.

“Hopefully he’ll have much more going on that he’s going have to deal with and should deal with and must deal with than worrying about what NFL players do,” Tisch told The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday night at the premiere of The Equalizer 2. “He has no understanding of why they take a knee or why they’re protesting. When the new season starts, I hope his priorities are not criticizing the NFL and telling owners what to do and what not to do.”

His comments come during a week when issues surrounding the anthem have resurfaced in part due to a joint statement released by the NFL and NFPA Thursday. That statement included that there will be no new rules issued relating to the national anthem, and that none will be enforced over the “next several weeks” while they continue to have “confidential discussions.” (Read more)

President Trump took aim at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday in a tweet, calling upon the football executive to further punish players who protest by kneeling during the national anthem.

The president wrote Friday that Goodell, noting his $40 million a year salary, must “make a stand” against mostly African-American NFL players who have protested police brutality and racism by taking a knee during the National Anthem before games.

“The NFL National Anthem Debate is alive and well again – can’t believe it! Isn’t it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart? The $40,000,000 Commissioner must now make a stand. First time kneeling, out for game. Second time kneeling, out for season/no pay!” Trump wrote. (Read more)

The Watch Dogresponse: So glad I can listen, read and comprehend for myself.

Now that I have learned the truth about our national anthem and its author, I’ll never stand up for it again.

First off, the song, which was originally written as a poem, didn’t become our national anthem until 1931 — which was 117 years after Key wrote it. Most of us have no true idea what in the hell we’ve been hearing or singing all these years, but as it turns out, Key’s full poem actually has a third stanza which few of us have ever heard. In it, he openly celebrates the murder of slaves. Yes, really.